Appeals court sides with S.F.'s new North Beach library

Updated 1:45 pm, Wednesday, May 14, 2014

(05-14) 13:44 PDT SAN FRANCISCO -- Three days after San Francisco opened an expanded and modernized North Beach library, a state appeals court upheld the city's planning and environmental review processes that led to the decision to tear down and replace the former library building.

The new library, which opened Saturday at the corner of Lombard Street and Columbus Avenue, is 60 percent larger than the former branch building and includes public restrooms, wheelchair access and elevators, none of which were previously provided. Funded by a voter-endorsed bond measure, it was approved by the Board of Supervisors in 2012.

Opponents sought to preserve and expand the old library, a 55-year-old building that remains nearby but is slated for demolition. They argued in a lawsuit that the project violates San Francisco's General Plan, which prohibits "non-recreational uses" of city-owned park land such as the library site, and that the city's environmental study failed to adequately consider alternatives that would keep the previous library.

But the First District Court of Appeal, in a 3-0 ruling Tuesday, noted that the old North Beach library is in a city-owned park and said the new project would "increase the amount of open space" once the current branch was demolished.

The court also said the environmental study examined proposals to expand the older branch and reasonably concluded that reconstruction would better serve the city's goals of accessibility, safety and improved library services. The ruling, which upheld a Superior Court judge's decision, could be appealed to the state Supreme Court.

Now that the new library has opened, plaintiffs' lawyer Paul Carroll said Wednesday his clients' goal is "to preserve the historic building, if possible," for some other public use such as recreation.